0-1 100-122*° +POR-PHO +SEA-NY vs +CAL-PHO +WIN-HOU (POR-NAS)
8 locos on my side made me flexible with longest, even when Alex came in my way - apparentely he did not have that good colours1-1 074*°-060° -MON-NO -MON-ATL vs -DUL-HOU -SF-ATL (SEA-NY)
3 locos on my side including bad colours (2 green, 3 red...) small tic was lost early, Alex started blocking when I obviously concentrated on a big southern one, I just managed to tie longest, when he ended quickly - even without blocking I don't guess I had a chance here2-1 124°-103* +VAN-SFE +SSM-OKL vs +SEA-LA +LA-CHI +DEN-ELP(found) (DUL-HOU)
3 locos on my side - my chance to reach longest got small without 6 yellow, here and there a colour card was missing for a better track (1 blue for 6er way or 1 red for 4/4 northern bypass) - taking tix only brought 4...longest decided3-1 082*-081° +KAN-HOU +DEN-ELP vs +SFR-ATL -LA-MI (DUL-HOU)
3 locos on my side - Alex answered my 6 black with 6 green I couldn't get anyway and then blocked anything my way I could have when I went eastern via yellow - it came to the decision whether to full block Miami or Frisco and he took Miami - nevertheless I had longest for sure and he 4+5 in maximum - then I made the big mistake not to make 3+4+1 in the end as I prolongued my longest without reason with 3+3+2 - he had 4+5 and I lost by one instead of winning by one4-1 127°-118* +POR-PHO +SEA-LA +CAL-SLC vs +CAL-PHO +DEN-PIT (MON-ATL)
7 locos on my side - everything went fine, I had a perfect 44er route in front of me: with 8 white+locos I could have gotten a loop HEL-CAL-WIN BUT made MISTAKE #1...I did not take Cal-Hel in time and something less important instead - then I somewhat paniced and made MISTAKE #2 by connecting hastily with 4 blue instead of working for a way via 6 grey I also could have made...longest was gone and decided this game4-2 107*-123° +WIN-LIT +HEL-LA vs +VAN-MON +DEN-PIT (DUL-HOU)
4 or 5 locos on my side but completed by fitting colours - We both went our way on our own; Alex gave up longest in the end and ended the game with 6 red --> longest decided

Lucky tie for me in the last game - 5 or 6 locos for me one game, 3 in most of the others, LA-NY 4 times in my hand + one time in Franz'

* start
° longest

0-1 096°-118*°+POR-NAS -KAN-HOU vs +SF-ATL +LA-NY (Win-Lit)
Franz started early to take open black ones and took the 6er when I had 3 black+2 locos, so I took 6 green - then Pammes 5 yellow, me 3 to Pho and Pammes SFR-LA and I thought I was dead - Franz then struggled to reach Nas and I decided to block Portland with 5 purple and 6 blue, so he had to take detour via Hel/Cal/Sea which gave me some more turns I needed for getting 3 orange - I was lucky he didn't block SLC or NY

1-1 128*°-097 +LA-MI +SFR-ATL vs +CHI-NO +MON-NO (DAL-NY)
Even disturbing him a little bit didn't change anything here, Franz could play 6 red+4 red, and did not even need longest in the end

2-1 110-107*° +VAN-MON +TOR-MIA vs +DUL-ELP +DEN-PIT (LA-NY)
I decided early to block NY and played on my longest - sacrificing 5 white for blocking on was my mistake

3-1 122*°-009 +LA-NY +CHI-SFE vs -MON-NO -NY-ATL (SF-ATL) -many more tix
After needlessly blocking NY the last game I decided not to do it again when I had the chance and he went through, I prepared for finding northern biggies, then Franz blocked my only chance for a southern connection - nothing found within 3 trials, wouldn't have changed anything I guess

3-2 104-119*° +CHI-SFE +POR-PHO vs +CAL-PHO +WIN-LIT (LA-NY)
Nice colours on my side - longest was the key in the end

3-3 117*°-127 +13 (?) +16 -CAL-SLC vs +POR-PHO +21 (BOS-MI) -6 +22
My colours made me take a risky northern route with the hope Franz wouldn't block as he had 3 tix - we went our ways on separately and he had many tix on his way (16 13 13 10 9 9 8 ) and I thought without longest I'd lose - Franz overdrew to make it a 45er I couldn't reach and I drew tix with 22 17 13 9 8 on my route and 17 9 6 doable with Nas-Atl as possible last turn - I only found 6 and Franz made it a 45 - I could have connected Atl, but then I would have lost for sure so I took tix again - with one tic lost on my side and the belief of Franz having 3 tix fulfilled I was sure I need 2 tix and at least one biggie (22 17) - I found Sea-NY, SFR-Atl and something else and was angry about the wrong 17 I couldn't use in my last turn anymore, so I wrote something in a situation when it would have been better to keep quiet for sure - Franz decided not to take tix and surprisingly had +16 +13 -7

strange ticket distribution, only one game for each of us with no biggie (17+) - the both of us didn't gain longest only one time with start

*start
°longest

1-0 135*-131° +LA-MI +21 vs +VAN-MON +CAL-SLC (SSM-NAS) - 5/6 LOKOS
We both went our ways without disturbing - when Ross made 6 purple and 2er NY, I was sure I gain longest - in the end I had to ponder whether he has both biggies or some TOR/DUL included; I only had 8/9 on my route and didn't take tix...I could have ended one turn earlier, but only difference would have been 2 pts less on Ross' side

1-1 120-141*° +DAL-NY +21 vs +42 (SEA-LA) - 4 LOKOS
Ross gave up longest in the beginning (well, no start, DALLAS...) and threw 6er to disturb my way and connected via LIL/OKL with more track points than me, but longest decided...once again 42 for me against Ross after last weeks' SPWC match; I can't remember, when I had it before

2-1 129*°-104 +VAN-MON +DUL-ELP vs +22 +MON-NO (BOS-MIA) - 4 LOKOS
I made the mistake to start early for my biggie and after I connected SEA-NY-PIT I was very short on colour cards - even with 5 black out, Ross had no problem to get longest as I was very slow to connect NO and only had 3ers max in my hand (I waited for 3 green more to go via 5 green+3green, but they never came)

2-2 114-116*° +POR-NAS +DEN-PIT vs +DUL-HOU +SSM-OKL (CHI-FE) - 2 LOKOS
Ross revealed his 17er very early and needed a detour in the north - I was short on locos but it didn't matter as I was long on red and could hit the decisive punch blocking his longest with DEN-SLC

3-2 132*°-115 +WIN-LIT +22 vs +LA-MI +DUL-HOU (VAN-MON) - 2 LOKOS
With my colours I barely reached my aims, I could have blocked 3 blue knowing about him not having VAN-MON but missed the chance as I had problems with 6 red and needed blue for possible ATL detour - don't guess blocking would have made a difference at all - maybe I took the wrong 20er

3-3 089°-117* +CAL-SLC -6 [drawn -CHI-FE] vs +22 +DUL-ELP (DUL-HOU) - 9! LOKOS
My lucky one! I had more locos than the last three games altogether but like always....played too risky and lost longest very early - I started 6 yellow (ROSS 6 white) me 6 orange + 6 grey and Ross took time thinking and then started a LA-MI fake he connected to CAL in the end (with only 3 locos in max as 2 locos were open!) - then he came to a point to end with a 3er and he would have won with each combo on his route, but he overdrew! As I only had 4 on my route and needed a 1er connection for 20/11 and also only had 2 1er in my hand I ended the game after out-time of several mins thinking and Ross took tix (8/12/20 on his route) without luck - this last game Ross played very well (in contrast to me) with such a crap but it was not to be
PS: I must confess, I didn't see HEL-LA on his route...

Very interesting fight :
I had to take risks and/or bet on bad choices by my opponent to win games 1 and 4.
Bad combos for me vs good ones for Vince made me concede 2 games with start (games 3 and 5).
Enjoyed the win on game 4 against sea-ny, without start but with decent combo (por-pho + dul-paso)
Last game could have been better played I guess (Van-fe + Winni-Hous for me, Den-Paso + Chi-Fe for GSV, I tried to kill Vince's longest all game without success)...

Merci pour ce match Vincent !

So it seems I officially end 1st Thanks to you all from group C for a nice season and great matches !
Well I didn't expect that result when the season started !
Now I have some new names in my vendetta list. Dom, Olof and Rob : I'm waiting for our next fight

Very interesting fight :
I had to take risks and/or bet on bad choices by my opponent to win games 1 and 4.
Bad combos for me vs good ones for Vince made me concede 2 games with start (games 3 and 5).
Enjoyed the win on game 4 against sea-ny, without start but with decent combo (por-pho + dul-paso)
Last game could have been better played I guess (Van-fe + Winni-Hous for me, Den-Paso + Chi-Fe for GSV, I tried to kill Vince's longest all game without success)...

Merci pour ce match Vincent !

So it seems I officially end 1st Thanks to you all from group C for a nice season and great matches !
Well I didn't expect that result when the season started !
Now I have some new names in my vendetta list. Dom, Olof and Rob : I'm waiting for our next fight

Very hard fight with better tix on my side (3xVAN-MON 3x16) - 3 breaks, only 2 times starter took longest

*start
°longest

0-1 115°-120* +WIN-HOU +HEL-LA (5) vs +VAN-MON +16 (BOS-MIA) - 5 LOKOS
I was short on orange but could make the west-east connection with red and blue in the middle - in the end I could have made longest due to better colours but decided to take 6 blue

1-1 132*°-117 +VAN-MON +SSM-OKL vs +CAL-PHO +16 +CHI-SFE (drawn -CAL-SLC) - 4 LOKOS
We didn't bother each other and it came to who will gain longest, I decided to take 5 white +connecting SFE with 2er instead of 2/3/3 and lost longest (could not have made a 44er like her anyway, so no chance for longest) so I took tix searching for 4/8/8/10 without success

2-1 111-106*° +SSM-NAS +MON-NO (drawn -4) vs +POR-NAS -5 (VAN-SFE) - 5 LOKOS
I started 6 black (Jasmin 6 green) and I gave up the short one to get longest - I fulfilled the big one and connected HEL so Jasmin took tix but only made -4 which was not enough for me

2-2 099*-102° +SSM-NAS +MON-NO (again!) (drawn +6) vs +VAN-MON -DEN-PIT (DAL-NY) - 4 LOKOS
Jasmin started early with purple on grey!!! - As this must be an eastern combo and I didn't have purple that time I took 5 black - we blocked each other's way in north-east and I made the big mistake not to connect DUL-SSM and she blocked my easy way - I managed to connect VAN via STL-OMA detour (5 green, 4 blue) and lost my second tic but was fast enough to get longest - Jasmin took tix, but her NY-ATL was not enough

2-3 099°-129* +4 +5 -WIN-LIT vs +VAN-MON +SEA-LA + HEL-LA - 5 LOKOS
Without colours for a good longest I decided to connect the biggie seperately - Jasmin didn't block my way and took longest easily but had only crap (or in cat_language:KÄSE)

2-4 086*-114° +POR-NAS +CHI-SFE (drawn -VAN-SFE - SEA-LA) vs +CAL-SLC +16 (BOS-MIA) - 3 LOKOS
The both of us had wrong colours - me 8 purple Jasmin needed but short on orange and green -we took a lot of open colour cards for our way and once again I connected my tix seperately - My SEA-POR seemed to bother Jasmin a lot as she made 6 blue out of her longest and I got the chance to connect my 2 part snake via Vegas having 3 orange and a 1er left on my hand when Jasmin took tix with 17/11/9 on her route and VAN-SFE only 1 away - as she did not block my 3 orange before I first blocked VAN and she took cards again - I made longest with 3 orange and >>surprise<< the 1st of her drawn ones really was VAN-SFE! so this lucky punch decided